There is no doubt that both the political right and left are coalitions of overlapping, often conflicting, ideological groups. Usually it takes a period in governmental opposition to unify these fractious constituents, because sometimes, only the strong coalescing incentive of usurping a common foe can paper over the obvious cracks in a marriage of convenience.
Over the last 2-years in the United States, the incredibly successful Republican coalition, conceived and constructed first by Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist, and then perfected by “the architectâ€, Karl Rove, began to unravel as this alliance of churches, tax-crusaders, libertarians, and traditional conservatives, came to understand that their individual demands could never be met. Pressure groups may be able to deliver whole blocks of votes, but they are loyal to their issue, not to any party ensign. As Republicans face up to difficult midterm elections this November, increasingly they are thrashing around for votes as the fabric of their support disintegrates.
Traditional conservatives are horrified by budget deficits, which are caused by tax cuts to keep the Norquistian wing of the party happy. A failure to privatise social security and overturn the Estate Tax has meant that even the tax-cutters are not entirely happy. Isolationist libertarians are pissed at misguided foreign interventions and the growth of the federal security infrastructure. And Christian groups are furious at the slow progress in turning the Supreme Court into an organ of the fundamentalist movement. Only a muddied Democrat strategy prevents this fragile house of cards from collapsing completely.
In the UK, back in 1997, the left also constructed a successful coalition to remove a corrupted and failing opposition. Using targeted voting: liberals, socialists, and greens managed to topple Major’s government and deliver a new leftish democratic dynasty: New Labour.
In our post-9/11 world, the Leftish coalition has also begun to crumble. Polarising issues such as tackling terrorism, the welfare state vs. the tax burden, nuclear disarmament, and Iraq, have all led to friction and fracture within the left.
Take Iraq; on the one hand you have the Norman Geras School of benign interventionism, which has reacted against both the peacenik wing and the Chomsky led anti-colonialist arm of the left. The argument has led to poisonous debate within much of the left as each side claims moral superiority and bitterly condemns the other. Has anyone, over the past couple of years at least, been more spiteful of leftish sensibilities than Christopher Hitchens, a man who once led the left with such conviction?
Even here on the tranquil waters of tygerland we have occasional differences of opinion. Recently the monkey-on-Blair’s-back that is John Prescott, has created a healthy and constructive conflict, and differences on economic theory often lead to disagreement, but ultimately we are united by a common idea: egalitarianism.
How we create, and how we prioritise equality, is what defines and divides the left. Yes we have specific interest groups, such as CND and environmentalists, and we have radical fringes, such as animal rights and anti-globalists, but ultimately we share a belief and optimism that our collective lot can be improved.
Government leads to expectation and then disenfranchisement. The Blair Government on a multitude of levels dissatisfies much of the left. However if the left continues to disintegrate and bicker, it will cede power to the conservatives who wait in the shadows for their time again in the sun. The shape-shifter that is David Cameron is nothing more than an opportunistic political mollusc that’s happy to cling - limpet-like - to any position that may deliver power. Only then will the Janus-like Cameron show his true colours.
This is not to say that Labour should maintain power indefinitely. The New Labour project has become misguided and diluted by power, and promises of a Brown lead lunge to the left will prove fruitless. We on the left must ourselves, both at a local level and in the blogosphere, take control and embrace our differences, but we must also maintain our discipline, and remember whom our enemy is. Our enemy does not sleep, but slowly tends to her wounds, building strength and waiting to strike.
The divided left must refocus and reengage.
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In my view, the Left has been divided by insidious infiltration from the Right which seems every time more united.
Blair and his New Labour are one of the most aberrant things I have seen of late. The problem is that the same problem is occurring all over Europe.
Sometimes I think that the Socialism that is winning elections today is not that Socialism that derived from Marxist doctrines. It is a Socialism made in the image of Conservatism.
The same problem bedevils us all; we have a systemic problem and there are no proposals to remedy the system. We have expectations that a given person can work within the system as designed and make it all work, if we just find that right person. We have expectations that a new party can make things happen. And around the margins, that’s true. Unfortunately, on a macro scale that largely defies our experience. Changing faces, nameplates and ruling party banners within the same rules & incentives system is only cosmetic. The fresh new members either get corrupted or marginalized. We need a pragmatic discussion of first principles and a means to implement, not frustrate, the widespread consensus views. We need to put aside grandiose theory’s and ideology’s, and look to empirical results. Elitists should be overwhelmed by democratic participation and effective implementation. We need new governments.
PS: thanks for your kind review.
No worries Tom, it’s a good blog.
Good points you raise above.